


Love Letters

by StarsAndUniverses



Series: Love Letters Universe [1]
Category: The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Panic Attacks, starscream and skyfire are both smart but dense, stupid gays
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2019-11-01 04:16:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17860118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarsAndUniverses/pseuds/StarsAndUniverses
Summary: He knew that the sickly sweet messages he snagged from the data lines clearly weren’t meant for him. But with a bit of imagination, it wasn’t hard to believe they were.





	1. Where Starscream Considers Emotions

Skyfire had moved on.

Such is life. The simple little statement shouldn’t have affected him as much as it did. But oh, in the name of Primus, it did.

Skyfire. A bright, beautiful,  intelligent, so often underestimated, shuttle. Starscream’s closest friend since forever ago, and forever ago, he would stay. Forever ago was the last memory of Skyfire gently caressing Star’s wings when he came home, stressed from too many long lectures in a row. Forever ago was the last memory of Starscream floating on his thrusters to reach Skyfire’s face, to cradle his huge rosy cheeks in his delicate hands, to kiss those soft lips as if they would break underneath his touch. Forever ago was the last time that Starscream had made Skyfire happy.

And it seemed as forever ago it would stay.

Starscream’s vents hitched hard. He glanced over his shoulder into the dark room, where the outlines of Thundercracker and Skywarp peacefully recharging could barely be made out. Not even so much as a stir could be made out from the heap of blankets that covered them - Skywarp had insisted in getting them, and Starscream had to admit, they _did_ feel nice against his plating.

“Ugh, you’re so stupid,” Starscream growled at his reflection in the dim datapad he’d been pouring over for the past few hours. Why was he so jumpy? He had to face Megatron daily, stare at those horribly ugly faceplates of his, and now a simple datapad was sending him into a paranoid fit? This was completely unacceptable! He should stop this instant! He should chuck the datapad out the window and forget anything had ever happened. 

But as the same words from this afternoon peeked through his reflection, Starscream’s spark ached. What had he been expecting, really? For Skyfire to come crawling back to him? For Skyfire to look him in the optic and tell him he forgave him, for everything? For Skyfire to smile down at him and shake his head and tell him he’d been overreacting, that he should try harder next time, just like all those millions of years ago, when Starscream did something he’d regret in a few days? 

Well, yes. Yes, he had. He’d been expecting all that and more. In the few days after Skyfire had left to go be an Autobot, Starscream had been expecting a call back. A promise that they would talk it out, maybe? An affirmation that Sky still believed in him, perhaps? The pillow-soft “Everything’ll be okay, my shining Star,” that Skyfire used to give him in the safety of their shared dorm at the Science Academy. What he got was complete radio silence. 

And that should have been the end of it. But it wasn’t. The first three days were of denial, of him boldly insisting to his trinemates that Skyfire would call any day now. The next two days had been him trashing their room, raving about the audacity Skyfire had, clearly the fault of the Autobots. The next four days had been spent frantically calling Skyfire, trying to apologize, only to be repeatedly met with a dead line. And the past four days having been spent in a complete slump, not leaving his room to eat, to wash, and much less to fulfill his duties as Decepticon Second in Command and Air Commander. Two weeks and an entire grief cycle had passed since the incident, and he’d still not yet reached acceptance. 

An offending ray of sunshine slapped him in the face through a crack in the window. Morning already?

“Pathetic.”

Megatron would not tolerate this ridiculous behavior much longer. Starscream knew that. But until the big, gray bastard came storming in himself and yanked Starscream out of his safe haven by the wings, he had no intention of returning to his duties. After all, he would return Starscream to the battlefront - a good tactical move, Starscream was an excellent warrior - but that would not do any good. He might encounter Autobots. He might see Skyfire.

He might have to fight him.

Starscream slammed the datapad in his hands down onto the table, a decisive metal clang ringing through the room. Thundercracker stirred a bit, but Skywarp remained rock still.

He shouldn’t be scared of Skyfire. He reasoned that he wasn’t. He was scared of what Skyfire had to say.

Starscream slammed the datapad down again. No! He couldn’t be scared of Skyfire or anything he could say! That’s not how this worked! _He_ was the Decepticon! Skyfire should be scared of _him_!

And that’s exactly what terrified him.

There were many things he could have done. Many ways he could have kept Skyfire in his arms. Many alternatives he could now see, Primus knew his hindsight was always 20/20. He could have talked to Skyfire, he could have held him, he could have slowed down and explained. But instead of all that, Starscream had shot him. He’d always taken pride in the fact that he was the only one that, no matter what, would talk things out with what everyone else considered a big, slow, dumb shuttle. But this time, he had not. And really, why would Skyfire want to stay with someone who only made him feel like slag? Starscream knew _he_ wouldn’t.

After all, hadn’t it been Starscream himself who taught Skyfire to have impeccably high standards? This was just the first time that he, himself, fell below the bar. The bar he had perfectly built with himself in mind.

His spark twisted, uncomfortable in its casing. No, that wasn’t quite right. To his own surprise, he’d never _wanted_ Skyfire to think he was perfect. He’s never _wanted_ to manipulate Skyfire. He wasn’t even all that sure he could have, if he’d wanted to. In fact, it was much more likely that Skyfire could have manipulated him, had he wanted to. Skyfire, who was the main reason that Starscream remembered to refuel everyday. Skyfire, who calmed him down after he stormed into their room, upset at some schmuck who thought he could get away with telling him he was slag. Skyfire, who picked him up at the end of the day, whether it be cool and composed from the front of their school, or slag faced and bumbling from the front of a bar. Skyfire, who was mocked for his slow engines and unseemly wings, could always lift Starscream up to the stars.

“My shining Star.”

“Isn’t that what Fire used to call you?” Thundercracker’s drowsy voice called from the midst of 20 blankets.

Starscream felt his spinal strut stiffen. “Yes. And what of it?” He could feel the defensive edge creeping into his words, but he couldn’t be bothered to stop it himself. If Thundercracker wanted to pry, let him try! He could deal with the consequences himself!

“Nothing. I was just asking. What are you still doing up?”

Poor bot was still half asleep. Starscream couldn’t stop a twinge of regret from poking at his processor. Thundercracker hadn’t done anything wrong. In fact, Starscream was more than likely the reason he was even awake.

“I was… considering… some things.”

“Still sad about Skyfire, huh?”

Wings hiked up high, Star’s vocalizer turned up to his usual screeching tone. “I am _not_ upset!”

“Dude, chill, you’ll wake up Warp, and then where’ll we be? I was just asking. You an’ him used to be pretty serious.”

Starscream scoffed, and cursed under his breath when his voice cracked in sorrow halfway. “Hardly! We interfaced, nothing more!”

“And you worked in the same lab, and you moved in with him instead of us, and you dated for vorns, and you talked about having sparklings. So just, normal fragbuddy stuff?”

Starscream could feel heat pulsing through his systems. “It’s… not like that.”

“To be honest? I don’t really care. It’s not like that anymore. I love you, Star. That’s why I’m telling you. You gotta stop this Skyfire stuff.” Thundercracker rewrapped himself in a large blue blanket, one of the softest they had. “It’s not healthy. You haven’t left the room cuz’ you sleep all day and at night, you stay up and don’t get a wink. All cuz’ o’ that stupid shuttle. Megatron’s gonna smack your aft to the ground soon enough. He’s gettin’ tired o’ you not showing up to the meetings.”

“Then let him get upset! I have my right to mourn! I have my right to be in my room! The old hag can suck it!”

“Yeah, yeah. Get over it, Screamer. You’ll be happier. Anyways, I’m going back to bed. Night.”

“Good night, Thundercracker.”

“Get some rest, Star.” 

“I will, Thundercracker.”

“Stop that.”

“Stop what, Thundercracker?”

“That! Whenever you’re all stressed and tense, you do that!”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Thundercracker.”

“Whenever you’re pissy, you say people’s names at the end of sentences." 

“...I do?”

“Night, Screamer.”

“W-wait! Have I always done that?!”

The soft hum of Thundercracker’s vents leveled out peacefully. The bastard was already asleep. Didn’t even bother to answer his question.

The offending ray of sunshine had turned into a warm light cast throughout the room, a small glint shining off the datapad thrown on the table.

Maybe Thundercracker was right. Maybe Star really did just need to get over himself. Maybe he was just overreacting.

Starscream picked up the datapad in hands as gently as those that held Skyfire years ago. He needed closure. That much was obvious. 

He clicked the datapad on again, letting a cool blue light outshine the warm, yellow sunlight pouring in. Starscream wasn’t going to wait around for an apple to fall on his head to tell him he should get over it.

He moved the datapad to a private connection so that Soundwave wouldn’t be able to track the activity. He needed to take direct action! After all, that’s what he’d always done before. Why wouldn’t it work now?

He typed in Skyfire’s comm address and let his finger hover over the search button. Was he really prepared to do this? Was he really going to breach Skyfire’s trust like this? Would Skyfire forgive him if he ever found out?

Skyfire wasn’t planning to forgive him regardless. Besides, once a Decepticon, always a Decepticon. Star clicked search with an unparalleled determination burning in his optics.

As the room flooded with the early morning light, Starscream didn’t take his bright red optics off the datapad the color of Skyfire’s soft blue optics, and he scanned through Skyfire’s private message logs one by one.

He needed to know if Skyfire had moved on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've already got the whole story outlined, the deal is just getting the time to write it. I'll try to upload a chapter once every week or two, but it really just boils down to how my schedule ends up looking like. Criticism is totally encouraged, I really do just wanna get better at writing. Thank you for taking the time to read! Hope you enjoyed!


	2. The Sky's the Limit

His wings ached to Cybertron and back. His spinal strut was stiff as the metal poles holding up the room around him, although the slight bends in them made it clear his back was actually stiffer. 

Simply put, the Ark had not been made with shuttles in mind. The only rooms big enough for him to have recharged were the big storage rooms, which would have taken days in their own right just to clean out. The empty rooms that he could have otherwise occupied had doorways too small for his wings to fit through. 

He knew, logically, that it wasn’t any of the Autobots faults’. In fact, Optimus looked horribly embarrassed that there wasn’t some form of accommodation for Skyfire the moment they had gotten back, and had pushed his mechs an incredible amount to erect a makeshift room outside that could actually house him. Skyfire was touched and certainly grateful.

That did not mean he was comfortable. 

It was four walls, a door he could fit through, and a ceiling he didn’t hit with his forehead. That was about it. His “berth” was about four normal sized berths welded together and there was no other furniture. The ceiling was held up by large metal poles, most likely suggested by Wheeljack, to make sure the room didn’t cave on him in the middle of the night. But those weren’t the biggest problems with the room. 

The room had no heating system. It shouldn’t have bothered him - after all, space is really cold - but it still did. He knew it was completely impossible in this part of Earth, but whenever he felt a chill, he felt like it wouldn’t stop. He felt like a breeze could turn into a wind, could turn into a blizzard, could turn into another million years stuck in ice. 

He hadn’t been able to fall asleep last night because he was afraid he wouldn’t wake up. 

Exhaustion tore over him once the sun started to rise again and he’d completely passed out, his wings and back pressed up against the rough welds of the megaberth they’d made him. Patches of paint on his wings were completely scratched off and his spinal strut was so horribly misaligned that he had to squirm around for a few minutes to shift it back into place well enough to stand up and properly stretch. 

It was about midday by now, which was a bit of a surprise. Skyfire had always woken up at the exact same early time, even if it had been 5 minutes after he’d fallen asleep. He always scheduled his classes early, his labs early, his jobs early. After all, the evening had always been Starscream time. 

Skyfire shook his head and grabbed a datapad out of his subspace, glaring at his own reflection on the blank screen.

“Get over yourself, Skyfire! He doesn’t matter anymore! Got it?”

The sad eyes in his reflection conveyed that he did not, in fact, got it. 

Skyfire sighed. The walls had small gaps between them, they weren’t that well secured together as much as individually, and light peered in, forming thin, near white lines on the floor. The room was otherwise, not lit, as there hadn’t been time to install proper electricity. His plating reflected the concentrated beams of natural light that snuck in almost obscenely, so much so that he couldn’t look at himself without wincing and looking away. 

White. Blinding white. The same blinding white as those million years when the white snow came from every direction. It came and it swallowed him, it froze his lines, it swept him away so incredibly fast, faster that Star could fly after him. It grabbed him, it choked him, it dragged him down, and he fell, he was falling, falling, so fast, too fast, he was falling, he was  _ dying _ , he was gonna hit the ground and split into a million pieces, his metal was too cold and he would just  _ shatter _ when he hit the ground and the wind was getting louder, louder, too loud and he was falling and he was gonna-

A sharp knock on the door yanked him from his waking nightmare, gasping for air. He coughed hard, his vents rattling louder than he’d ever heard them rattle. He pushed himself up from the ground - when did he fall down? - and braced himself on one of the sturdy metal poles. Another knock sounded, this one much duller than the first one. Wheeljack’s scratchy voice - his voice box was probably screwed up from getting blown up so much - sounded through the door. 

“Hey, you good, big guy? We heard a pretty loud crash.” 

“Perhaps we should permit him space to adequately adjust to a new environment.” 

“He’s our friend, not a specimen, Percy.” Ah. That’s who the sharp knock belonged to. “Skyfire? You good?” 

Skyfire took a big vent. The air was warm now. Probably from overheating due to his… episode? Whatever it was. He wouldn’t dwell on it. But it was warmer, and he couldn’t complain.

“Yes, I’m perfectly okay. I simply tripped.” 

Wheeljack laughed, sharply, once. “Is there even enough room in there for you to trip?” The tone was good natured. That must just be how Wheeljack laughs. Primus knows Skyfire is familiar with unconventional laughs. Starscream’s gleeful default had been a full on witch cackle. 

And there he was, thinking about Starscream again. Go figure. He pushed the door open, a bit more forcefully than needed, and smiled down at Wheeljack and Perceptor. 

“Actually, do you think there are washracks I can visit?” 

Percy butt in before Wheeljack could get a word in. “Actually, I’ve done all the calculations and according to various forms of volumetric analysis, the washrack in the east wing is more than capable of suiting your size and has proper water capacity to support you!” 

Sky couldn’t help a light chuckle. “Really? Well, I appreciate it. Do you think you can take me there?”

Before Percy could dissolve into a rant of numbers and technical terms, Wheeljack patted Skyfire’s leg and took up the conversation. “Yeah, it’s no problem, buddy. Percy! Buddy, ol’ pal, don’t you have experiments running that you need to take care of?” 

Percy looked down, as if he was buffering, before screeching and bolting off in the direction of the lab. As Skyfire had been told by Wheeljack, half the explosions in the lab weren’t caused by the famous explosion-prone engineer. Half were caused by admittedly flighty and easily distracted Perceptor. Who’d have guessed?

Wheeljack looked up at him. “Are you sure you’re okay? You look really tired.”

Skyfire shook his head. “It was just… hard to fall asleep.”

“Any particular reason?” Wheeljack just kept walking, his pedes clanking softly on the floor. Wheeljack was nice. Sky could trust him. 

“It was cold.” 

Wheeljack kept walking for a bit before skipping a step out of shock. “Oh. I’m sorry about that.” 

“Not your fault.” 

The silence was uncomfortable, to say the least. Wheeljack felt like he’d crossed a boundary. In Skyfire’s mind, he hadn’t, but in Skyfire’s newly found Paranoid Mind TM , he had. He’d seen a little peek of how Skyfire ticked. He’d seen a bit of what made Skyfire weak. Starscream’s voice echoed in his ears. “You can’t let people know anything! Bastards will use it to ruin you!”

He frowned deeply. Why was Star plaguing his thoughts? Not that it was a new occurrence, Starscream did that enough before The Freeze - and when had he started calling it  _ that _ ? - but now it was different. It wasn’t through a veil of adoration and love. It was through a fog of hate. Starscream didn’t glisten and shine in bright light, he shook and shuddered through the dark of the shadows. He didn’t smile and beam like a supernova, he sneered and scorned like a black hole. 

Paranoid Mind TM said Starscream had betrayed him. Normal Mind did not. The battle in his processor was giving him a serious helmache. 

Wheeljack started talking again and Skyfire assumed he’d responded, as Wheeljack seemed to be keeping polite conversation. He didn’t know what he was saying, and that was probably pretty bad because it meant he probably had no filter, but his mind was all muddled and disgusting. He kept on thinking about Starscream before The Freeze and how much he’d changed. He shouldn’t be thinking about that. He really shouldn’t. 

When Skyfire looked up, he was alone in the washracks. He hadn’t seen Wheeljack leave, he hadn’t seen himself open the door and walk in, but it had happened. Deep thought was a dangerous thing. 

The water turned on and it was  _ cold _ . Really cold. Too cold. Just like The Freeze. 

“No, no, no, Skyfire, don’t-” But it was already too late. He braced himself against the wall and crashed onto his knees. The water ran all around him, freezing his energon in his lines - that’s not possible, Normal Mind said. It got everywhere. All over him, under his plating, in his neural net - that can’t happen, Normal Mind said. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t move. He was stuck in place, knees on the ground, hands on the wall, freezing water pouring over him. He was going to die. 

“Skyfire!” A desperate voice called out for him but it was too far away. It would never reach him in time. 

“Skyfire!” The voice was scratchy, from the cold maybe? No, that’s how that voice was supposed to be. Scratchy and hoarse, but just perfect. 

“Skyfire! Where are you?” The voice has so distant, so far, barely a whisper over the roaring wind. He couldn’t see where it was coming from, he couldn’t think about whose it was. All he could see was white and all he could think was “I’m going to die.” 

“ ** _Skyfire!_** ” The voice was loud and clear and right here and there was Starscream, and he was reaching out to him, and his beautiful, gentle blue hands were reaching for him, and he was right there, so close that Skyfire could _feel_ the burn of his red optics pressing onto his bright white plating, and he wanted to reach out so _badly_ but he was frozen still and Starscream was reaching, kicking and screaming, and now he was _fading_ , slipping away and Skyfire couldn’t do anything about it, he was going to die right here and there was nothing he could do about it- 

The water shut off at once, Skyfire’s voicebox screeching in protest, his plating flaring out to try and soak in all the dryness and warmth it could. Skyfire’s hands were still pressed firmly against the wall, just under the water controls, a grim reminder of how close he had been to escaping his nightmare. A reminder of how powerless he was to old, horrible memories.

A deep blue hand gently moves from the water knob to his forearm, a comforting presence to ground him until he could ground himself. Skyfire looked up to the bot’s faceplates. 

Oh Primus. 

Optimus Prime had just saved him. 

“S-sir? What are you doing in here?” 

Optimus’s shoulders dropped in what Skyfire assumed was relief when he had spoken. 

“I realized you were troubled. I hope I did not cross any lines.”

He hadn’t. He’d saved him. Primus knows how long he would’ve stayed like that, running under freezing water. Maybe until the water ran out or until he passed out. He had been saved by Optimus’s… blue… hands. 

“No, no, it’s fine! Thank you. I believe I should retreat to my room again. It was nice speaking with you!” Skyfire got up to his full height in one go and bolted from the room.

It wasn’t okay for him to be thinking about Starscream. It wasn’t right. Starscream had betrayed him, Starscream had  _ shot _ him, there wasn’t any excuse. Starscream was a changed mech, and the changes didn’t agree with Skyfire at all. Star was different now. Skyfire had to accept it. Especially now that he was Autobot, missing his Star was wrong. 

But back on Cybertron, he was wrong too. Because it was wrong for a shuttle to be a scientist. Because it was wrong for a shuttle to fall in love with a seeker. Because it was wrong for anyone to be outside the mold, an outlier, a forward thinker. So many things he’d done had been wrong. Why was this one any different?

It’s not the same, Normal Mind and Paranoid Mind agreed. Skyfire stormed to his room anyway. 

Starscream isn’t the same, Normal Mind and Paranoid Mind agreed. Skyfire shut the door hard behind him anyway.

He doesn’t love you anymore, Normal Mind and Paranoid Mind agreed. Skyfire opened up a secure, private datapad anyway. 

You’re only going to get your spark broken, Normal Mind and Paranoid Mind agreed. 

Skyfire sent the first message into the nothingness anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First week, on schedule! Wooo! Hopefully, the trend will continue. Thank you to everyone who showed interest in the first chapter! I really appreciate it!


	3. Never Be Satisfied

The clack of his jets on the floor echoed loud throughout the spacious hallways. Outside the tall windows, the dreamy purple skyline stretched out into a sea of stars, such as himself, that gleamed down from the rich heavens. A gentle breeze peeked through and funneled into the rooms, tickling his wings and petting his flight modules, urging him to step onto a window sill and throw himself off. He wanted nothing more than to let himself fall until the ground was 20 meters below him, to transform, to let his thrusters fire off at full power and to feel the effects of gravity be lost to him. The feeling was euphoric, dripping in sweet freedom and worming light happiness into his processor. 

He went up to a window and stuck a hand out, feeling the strong wind pass around and fantasizing about how wonderful it would feel on his wings. Oh, why did grounders need luxuries like this? They didn’t understand the glory of a strong current, the wonder of an open room, and yet they built their greatest buildings based on what a flier would want, what a seeker would desire, what a copter would envy. 

The Science Academy was built as a seeker’s paradise. And what for? To taunt them with a glimpse of beauty as they turned them away for the very things that made them see beyond the superficial panels of glass and impressive ceilings? Their thrusters and wings and flaps and rudders, that were seen as indications that they couldn’t be here, among the microscopes and high spec analyzers and scanners. 

“Hey! What are you doing here?” The gruff mech that the equally gruff voice belonged to put a, unsurprisingly, gruff hand on his wing and yanked on it to pull him from the window. 

“Hey, yourself! Hands off the wings! Don’t you know it’s considered highly uncouth to grapple a seeker’s  _ equipment _ ?” A low blow? Maybe. But the look of shock on the other’s face and the step back he instantly took away from Star got his hands of his wings, so a win in Star’s book. 

“Whatever, kid,” the rude tone was back shortly after, “You’re not supposed to be here. How’d you get in anyway? One of the windows?”

Star huffed and hiked his wings up. Noted, the mech was taller than him by a significant bit - Star had always been a bit small and scrawny for a seeker and he stood shorter than even most grounders - but the wings helped to compensate. “I’ll have you know that I  _ got in _ through the front door. Like everyone else! I’m here for the incoming class conference. So, if you would be so kind as to stop ogling at my wings for a minute to point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful!” 

The mech hadn’t even been looking at Star’s wings, he’d been too busy glaring at Star’s face for that, but the moment Starscream mentioned it, his eyes had snapped right up to them. Star sneered triumphantly. Got him. 

“Oh, really now? Prove it, kid!” 

Starscream smiles as fakely as he could as he pulled out his student ID card. The official seal mocked the mech’s face, which turned down instantly as he all but threw the card back into Star’s face. 

“Fine. I’ll take you there.” 

Starscream all but bit down a sharp cackle. “Oh, thank you, kind sir.” He stayed four steps behind the mech at all times, out of fear that he would have a change of heart and try to catch him off guard and strike him. 

When they arrived at the room, Starscream noticed the even higher ceilings than in the hallways and the incredibly large doors. The room was packed to the brim with mechs of all colors and shapes. But not of all alt modes. Typical. 

He got a few more glares thrown his way, nothing serious, but everyone seemed to be more distracted by something else. What could be more shocking than a seeker at the Science Academy? 

And that’s when he saw a giant pair of wings.

A shuttle. A bright white shuttle, who barely fit under the ridiculously high ceiling, and who every single person in the room was staring at. A shuttle who, despite his size, was looking down at his pedes and was twiddling his thumbs at his waist. A shuttle, who was big and should have been bold, but wanted nothing but to sink into the floor and disappear. The opposite of himself, who was small but scrappy and determined to leave his mark. 

His pedes moved on their own. He pushed through the crowd, not caring for the small indignant cries of mechs as they were shoved to the side. By the time he noticed, his legs were running as fast as they could, and before he could stop them, his thrusters turned on and he floated above the crowd, just far enough to float gracefully in front of the shuttle. 

He looked at the shuttle’s face, now that he’d looked up and Star had a good angle. Primus, he couldn’t have told the shuttle’s optics from the starry sky outside the windows, if only for the color. The sky was a deep purple, this mech’s were a perfect, serene blue. 

“Hello! My name is Starscream! What’s yours?” 

The shuttle’s starry sky optics opened wide and he smiled, a wonderful, peaceful sight. “I’m Skyfire.”

And, oh, how Star had completely believed him. 

* * *

 

There was no light in the room. Starscream hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights when he’d walked in, opting to feel around for the water control knobs on the walls. It would’ve taken a second, if even, to flick on the lights, but Starscream just couldn’t be bothered. He felt tired, too tired, and if it hadn’t been for Thundercracker’s intense insistence, Starscream wouldn’t have bothered to get out of bed. 

The water was strong and it was cold and now the outside of him felt like the inside. Cold and wet. Wet didn’t make sense, but neither did he, at this point. He knew that Cracker was right outside the door. He should probably call him in to help, mostly due to the fact that he wasn’t sure if he could stand up from where he was, on his knees, forehead against the tile wall. But he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to do anything right now, but pray that the water would fill up the room and he could just float away.

The messages hadn’t been what he was expecting. It was stupid - he shouldn’t have been expecting anything - but it was true. The first few days had passed by normally. Simple things, stupid things, small talk like Skyfire always made with anybody and everybody, the sweet idiot. Messages to the two other scientists, Perceptor and Wheeljack, who Starscream shouldn’t have been jealous of, but was. Messages to the Prime, thinly, if at all, veiled compliments of the Prime’s capability and compassion. Messages in shipwide gossip chats, all insisting the others to not spread unsightly rumors. Things that were expected of wonderful, caring Skyfire. 

But even now, as an Autobot, sometimes, a bit of Starscream peeked through. A small glimpse of all the years they spent living in the same room, learning in the same class, drinking from the same drinks and calling it love. 

It was always subtle. A sarcastic quip or remark that sent all the Autobots’ warning systems off, if only by a minute amount. A certain sassy stance, a cant of the hips that was so distinctly Starscream that no one could miss it. A flip of a wrist, a roll of an eye, things that were so out of character for someone who didn’t know Skyfire as well as Starscream did. 

The Autobots thought Starscream had poisoned him. Any remark of compassion for the seeker was met with ruthless mockery and Starscream knew that it was his fault, at least indirectly. He prayed that Skyfire hadn’t shared the full details of their relationship with anyone. Being the Decepticon Second in Command’s friend was bad enough, but having been his almost-conjunx was even worse. 

Although he clearly didn’t want to be anymore. 

The messages, innocent but sometimes not, had changed. Skyfire always wrote the name of whoever the message was to, which made it easy for Starscream to piece together conversations. They always began with “Dear Wheeljack” or “Dear Bumblebee” or “Dear Prime” - the last of which seemed to be the most common, Starscream’s brain poked at him - but the latest ones weren’t signed. A few days worth of messages, not directed towards anyone. Though, due to the nature of them, it wasn’t hard to tell why.

“Your optics are more gorgeous than the Andromeda galaxy.”

“When you’re by my side, I could soar through the stars.”

“In your hands, there is peace, where there is none elsewhere.” 

They continued as such. 

Sweet and sappy, typical Skyfire. Starscream had heard it all before, in the dark of their habsuite, in the middle of the night, during a walk through the park, everywhere and anywhere that Skyfire could slip in the words “I love you.” 

And maybe he’d meant them at some point, sure, Skyfire wasn’t one to lie boldfaced. But after all, just like everyone else said, he’d spent so much time around Star, who’s to know what he picked up? The lies, the pettiness, the burning need to be right, all could’ve added up to Skyfire’s rebound in less than a week. 

It didn’t feel right, though. It wasn’t  _ like _ Skyfire to just forget about him. Skyfire never forgot about anything, good or bad. And often enough, the good outweighed the bad. He stayed friends with bots Starscream would’ve cussed out and never looked back upon. He was so forgiving and gentle and it just didn’t make sense that he rebound from Starscream. That he rebound at all! It took Starscream years to get through Skyfire’s shell, to break into his spark and to show him that he cared and maybe…

Maybe that’s exactly why. Skyfire had invested so much in him, so much time and effort and care and  _ love _ . Maybe this was his breaking point. Maybe he’d given up on Starscream, maybe he’d be jaded and cynical for the rest of his life, like Star was, maybe he’d never be the same, Star had broken him and, oh Primus, what would he do if that were true? 

A coarse sob echoed through the washroom. Starscream looked up frantically for the source. He couldn’t be seen like this, all broken and gross. His voice box strained and choked and he looked down at himself in shock as a few more sobs wretched out from his mouth. It was him. He was sobbing, ugly crying from the little bits of reflection he could see in the puddles, and he couldn’t stop. Tears tore down his cheeks as if angry to exist and he sobbed harder as the echoes mocked him against the tile walls. 

Thundercracker and Skywarp burst in immediately, feeling his sorrow tugging at them through the bond, begging them for help. 

“Screamer! Are you okay?” 

“Of course he’s not okay, Warper! Don’t you have optics?” 

Skywarp dove onto his knees and practically scooped up Starscream in his arms as Thundercracker fumbled to turn off the water in the dark. Despite himself, Starscream clung to Skywarp’s familiar purple plating, focusing on how its subtle iridescence shone spectacularly in the low light rather than focusing on anything Skyfire related. 

“It’s still about that stupid shuttle, isn’t it?”

Starscream practically tore out of Skywarp’s hold, although Warp yanked him back down.

“He’s not stupid! He’s sweet and wonderful and-”

“And he broke your spark.”

Starscream sobbed hard once more and Skywarp glared hard and Thundercracker, his red optics piercing through Cracker’s spark. 

“Way to go, Cracker, you made him cry again!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault! I’m just-”

“Just what? Being an aft?”

“Silence, both of you!”

Starscream looked down at the tiled floor again and sighed. 

“Just please… hold me.” 

The two of them took him into their arms, warm and caring, protective as they could be and Starscream sighed as he began to float back asleep. The last thing he thought before he passed out was how much he’d prefer the arms around him to be Skyfire’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all you wonderful people who left comments and kudos! Love you all! The first section of this chapter is totally my baby, so I'd love some feedback and criticism on it! Til the next chapter!


	4. Enter Stage: Wheeljack

“Okay, so here’s the skinny. Skyfire. Dude was frozen in ice for about four million years and now he’s not anymore. And apparently, before he was frozen, he was a scientist, who went to the Science Academy, even though, like, no one with wings was supposed to go, so kudos to him for that. And  _ apparently _ , he had a thing with Starscream, who was also apparently a scientist. Needless to say, I think Skyfire’s won the award for Most Interesting Autobot.” 

“And most likely to be a traitor!”

“Cliffjumper, please be civilized. Primus knows what this mech’s been through with Starscream.” 

“If only Skyfire agreed with you! He’s still got a massive soft spot for the devil with wings!” 

“Primus, he’s been traumatized! Of course he’s going to be attached! That’s what processor damage does to a mech!”

“Did any of you listen to the fact that Starscream was different before the war? Maybe Skyfire’s fine! It’s rude to assume he only liked Star because he’s fragged up in the head.” 

“Well, why else would he miss Starscream?”

“I don’t know! Maybe because they dated for hundreds of years!”

The room only got louder and louder, and Wheeljack was getting way too fragging sick of it. Skyfire could’ve been standing in the middle of the room and the others would still be screaming about whether or not they should keep him in a habsuite or in the brig.

A shout, a chair flying across the room, an indignant yelp from a chair to the face. This was getting ridiculous. 

Skyfire stopped coming to these things a while ago. He’d hear people start to mention him and he’d bolt as fast as he could squeeze through the hallways that were way too small for him. 

Wheeljack ducked out of the way of another flying chair as he made a break for the door.

Skyfire stargazed a lot. He’d go outside and stare at the sky and look at the stars. No, he was a scientist. He didn’t look, he documented. He’d been on a research mission to Earth so long ago (with Starscream, of all mechs, Wheeljack still couldn’t wrap his head around it) and he’d never had a chance to do science. So every night, Skyfire would sit on a hill nearby with a datapad and document every star in the sky. Like any scientist would.

Wheeljack hated it, but Skyfire was the first shuttle scientist he’d ever met. Primus, Skyfire was one of the few flying scientists he’d ever met. The list of all of them could be counted off on one hand! He wasn’t old fashioned, he never had been, he’d always advocated to open the doors of Science Academy but it’d never gotten anywhere! And knowing that Skyfire (and even  _ Starscream _ , again, hard to believe) was a scientist made him so incredibly happy! 

Perceptor was nice but he was rigid! He was a rule follower, a square, a hardhead, he had a stick up his aft like no one else did and he  _ hated _ Wheeljack’s way of doing science. Maybe he was kinda right, he could get to be a bit much and it could get a bit dangerous but if you didn’t take big risks, you couldn’t make big discoveries! 

And Skyfire got that. He got it, he understood it. Maybe because for him, being a scientist  _ was _ that big risk! It was a huge risk! And that was amazing, it was incredible, it filled Wheeljack with such joy and pride and Primus, Skyfire was  _ amazing _ ! 

Wheeljack stopped in his tracks. Primus, Skyfire was  _ amazing _ . He looked up. He was at the foot of a hill. And on top, Skyfire, holding a datapad, staring up at the sky and writing down all of the stars. He blended into the dark blue speckles sky and his optics looked empty. Lonely. 

And, oh, how that wouldn’t do at all.

\--- 

The sky was hazy blue, a color that Starscream had tried to pull off once and failed miserably.

“Hey, Skyfire!” 

Skyfire looked up to see Wheeljack panting as he reached the crest of the hill. 

“Hello, Wheeljack. Do you need something?” 

“Nah, I just wanted to come up and see what you’re doing!” 

Skyfire chuckled. Here was Wheeljack, the crazy scientist, who probably had a million better things to do or pay attention to, noticed Skyfire, of all mechs. 

“Just counting the stars.” 

Wheeljack laughed and his headfins lit up a bright pink. “You have way too many pages of data to just be  _ counting _ them, Sky!” 

“Well, I’ve got to say which stars they are and where they are in the sky! I’m trying to calculate the speed of orbit of this planet! I’ve always been interested in solar systems! Did you know that Cybertron is actually part of a very small percentage of planets that isn’t in orbit around a sun? I think it’s very fascinating!” 

“Really? I always just assumed Earth was the outlier!” 

“Earth is a very interesting planet! That’s why Starscream and I came to study it!” Skyfire’s face dropped slightly and his eyes dimmed, “You probably don’t want to hear about Starscream, do you?”

Wheeljack looked down, staring hard at the grass. Did he really? No, not at all. He didn’t want to hear about how cute Starscream looked when he did this or that. He didn’t want to hear about how Starscream’s wings fluffed up when Sky said this or the other. He didn’t want to hear about how wonderful the Second In Command of the Decepticons was. But… he owed as much to Skyfire to lend an ear. He smiled an easy smile, the practiced smile of a born actor, and looked up at Sky’s burning blue - since when did they burn? - optics. “Go for it, buddy.” 

Skyfire’s jaw dropped in pure, unaltered shock. “R-really?” 

Wheeljack smiled kindly. “Yeah. Go for it!” 

And without another word, off Skyfire went. 

\---

Mistake.  _ Big _ mistake. Worst mistake of his entire life. 

He should’ve known. He should’ve  _ known _ . He should’ve known the second that Wheeljack started to warp into somebody else. 

He should’ve known. When Wheeljack looked like he was growing wings, big and unapologetically bright and powerful. When his optics turned to a shade of red instead of blue. 

Primus, Skyfire should’ve known. The more he talked, the more that Wheeljack looked like the mech he wished was by his side rather than the one that was.

He’d called Wheeljack Starscream. And how his face had dropped, all at once and all the way, and he  _ knew _ Skyfire was crazy. Skyfire hadn’t stuck around to wait for Wheeljack to run off and join the others in the meeting he knew they were having about him, to go and yell about how he really  _ did _ care about Starscream more than the Autobots. 

He took the liberty of flying off himself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have returned. Was really busy for a few weeks and will probably be busy for the next few weeks because of AP tests coming up, but I'm trying to get out chapters as best I can. Sorry that this one's a bit short, but the next one is gonna be way longer. Again, hope you're enjoying the story so far and comments and criticism are very much appreciated! 
> 
> On another note, since I WILL be busy for the next few weeks, I'll also be writing little blurbs about this story in my spare time that don't exactly fit with the timeline of this story, so I'll be posting them in a separate fic called Love Letters: Snippets, so go and check that out for more regular chapters in the coming weeks!


	5. Can you hear the

“Starscream! Where are you?” The bellow echoed through the hallways, everyone ducking out of its way as if the sound itself could manifest fists and beat them down against the wall. Starscream was not everyone. He groaned loudly. What did this glitch want?

“I am at my station,  _ Lord _ Megatron! As I should be!” It took every ounce of self control to not bare his teeth at the big grey butthead.

“For the first time in  _ weeks _ ! Do you even know what you’re supposed to be doing?!” His fist slammed down on the table dangerously close to Starscream’s fingers on the keyboard. Starscream knew that the mere centimeters off target was no accident on Megatron’s behalf.

“I’m checking back in with my seekers and I’m communicating with Soundwave to fill me back in!” He shoved his hands down to his sides. Better to leave his arms exposed than his hands. 

Megatron huffed, steam leaving his vents. “Today we’re having a meeting to plan the next strike on the Autobot base. I expect you to be there!” He turned and stormed out, practically tearing the door of its hinges. 

Starscream took a deep breath to not throw the keyboard out the door after him. A beat later, his self control flew out the window and he screeched “When?! And where?!” 

No answer. 

Starscream took the keyboard and cracked it against the edge of the table, sending keys flying everywhere. One hit him in the eye and out the door the keyboard went. 

“No good, useless, son of a GLITCH!” His spark burned so hot that it hurt, it stung hard and sharp, and before he knew what he was doing, he punched the wall as hard as he could, as if the burning feeling would leave through his fists. It didn’t and his knuckles started burning too but he just punched the wall harder, hard enough to leave dents in the wall and his hands. 

“Hey! Screamy, stop it!” Thundercracker yanked him back from the wall and Skywarp picked up his hands to start patching up the bleeding. “Don’t do that! You’ll hurt yourself!” 

“I think the wall took the worst of it, Cracker!” Starscream snarled, then instantly went quiet. It wasn’t Thundercracker’s fault that Megatron had gotten him worked up. “I’m sorry, Thundercracker. I didn’t mean-” 

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” He waved Star off but at the sight of Star’s downcast face, he softened. He cupped Starscream’s cheeks to look get him to look up. “Hey, hey, hey. Look at me. I know you, Star. I’ve known you for so long, I know how you work.” 

Starscream merely sighed deep and nodded. “I’m sorry, still.” 

“I know you are.” 

The silence was comforting. Thundercracker really  _ did _ know Starscream, all his ins and outs and what made him tick. Skywarp knew them too, but in a different way than Thundercracker did. Thundercracker could pick him up when he was down with carefully constructed kind words gentle pats. Skywarp would pick him up with bright bubbly jokes and stupid clumsy hugs. Primus knows he must’ve been the best monk on Cybertron to deserve such wonderful brothers in this life. 

Although he must not have been that good a monk if Primus could take someone as wonderful as Skyfire out of his li- 

A sharp clap rung out through the hallway, Starscream panting heavily. No. No more thinking like that. He had to move on. 

“Aw, Screamer, you did it! You did the thing!” 

“Yes, I… I suppose I did.”

Thundercracker smiled as Skywarp’s wings flapped and shook out the shining, glitter-like particles that formed from whenever he teleported and covered his body in a light, iridescent sheen. 

“He’s right, Star. I know you think it’s stupid, but snapping yourself out of it whenever you get in a funk is the best thing you can do for yourself. Doesn’t matter what no one thinks! You gotta do it for you.” 

“Oh, Thundercracker. For the second smartest of our trine, you can be so naive sometimes!”

Before Thundercracker could snap back and ask him him what the frag he meant, a textbook knock, three raps, perfectly spaced, hit their door. 

“Come in, Soundwave!” 

Soundwave walked in, Laserbeak on his arm, preening lightly and stretching her wings lazily. After Rumble had collapsed in the middle of a battle a few weeks prior from overworking himself, Soundwave had officially assigned each of his symbiotes a day off per week. He had notably and intentionally not assigned one for himself. Primus knows how long it would be before he collapsed too and had to apply the same policy - same mercy, really - to himself. 

“Thank you for coming to meet me, Soundwave. I want to get back to work as soon as possible. You know how it is.” 

Soundwave nodded, his visor seeming a bit dim from Star’s angle, “Understood. Starscream: Has upset Megatron. Must return to duty as soon as possible.”

“I understand that. I wanted to ask if I could have a report of the activity in the past few weeks.”

Starscream would’ve bet money that Soundwave sneered under his faceplate at the request. “Soundwave: Must be honest. Decepticon Army: Shut down during Starscream’s absence. Megatron: Will not admit Starscream is a vital source of battle strategy. Has wanted to launch attack on Autobots, cannot iron out plan effectively. Soundwave: Has  _ attempted _ to assist.”

“What went wrong?” Starscream leaned in, living for the gossip. It was rare that Soundwave say anything against Megatron, and Starscream wanted to breathe in every detail.

Soundwave huffed, it echoed lightly against his faceplate. “Soundwave: Not considered  _ adequate _ tactician. Megatron: Will not listen to Soundwave.” 

Starscream knew he should be vindicated by this. Look at that, Starscream wasn’t the only underappreciated member of High Command! But at the same time, he knew this was probably the first time Soundwave was even in the position where he wasn’t being praised for his dedication. Starscream remembered when that tide had turned between him and Megatron, how he’d been out of commision for a while.

How he’d almost switched sides. If he’d only switched sides that long ago then right now, he could be next to Skyf-

Starscream clapped his hands hard, right in front of his face. As soon as he’d done it, he looked up, terrified to see Soundwave’s reaction. He hardly needed someone as important as Soundwave to think he was some sort of freak. 

But Soundwave hadn’t flinched. He wasn’t looking at Star with a confused tilt to his head and he didn’t say anything. 

“S-sorry about that, Soundwave. I… don’t know what came over me.” 

“Starscream: Need not apologize. Soundwave: Has similar tendencies for comfort, admittedly.”

Starscream realized he didn’t know when to shut the frag up. “Like what?”

Soundwave shifted his weight from one foot to the other, tapping his free foot on the ground. “Soundwave: Speaks as Soundwave does. Does not have to. Chooses to. Soundwave: Feels this… feels this cadence to be comforting. Cadence: Easier to format for Soundwave. Easier to think about.” 

“So you  _ can _ speak normally?”

Soundwave’s head tilted down instantly and he wrung his hands together. He didn’t speak for a second, as if deeply processing his next words. “I… I can. I do not prefer it. It… it is very uncomfortable. I… I do not… I do not like it. Words: Difficult to proce- I-it’s hard to process… words and make them… sound right. I-I sound… I-Incompe-Incom-” He paused his stilted speech for a second, the pause portraying the disgusted twist in his face. “Stupid. I sound stupid.” 

Starscream realized he’d never heard Soundwave talk like that. It felt so wrong to hear the Third In Command of the Decepticons talk like a new sparkling. Every word sounded painful, drawn out, and strange. He was speaking in a language he didn’t understand or had never learned. He sounded like his mouth wasn’t the right shape, or his tongue was too big and clunky, and his processor wasn’t bolted down right against his voicebox. 

“No, no! Don’t talk like that for my sake. Speak however you want! It’s your thing now. The others would think it strange if you changed it now.” 

Soundwave relaxed visibly - as visibly as a perceivably emotionless mech could relax - and sighed. “Soundwave: Appreciates it. Starscream: Is correct. Very understanding.” 

Star smiled, more genuinely than he had in a while at anyone that wasn’t Thundercracker or Skywarp. “Don’t worry about it. My lips are sealed.” 

The silence was almost comfortable, the opposite of what silence around the communications officer should be, but Starscream found himself enjoying Soundwave’s company. 

“Starscream: Has been appointed to assist in the planning of an aerial attack on the Ark,” Soundwave spoke suddenly, as if he’d just remembered he was there for a real reason. 

“There’s a meeting today, I heard?”

“Affirmative. Meeting: In 3 cycles, in the Central Hall.” 

Starscream sneered at the thought of Megatron’s shocked face that he’d actually made it on time. Although, maybe he  _ should _ just be late and stick one to the Giant Deformed Boulder. 

“Thank you, Soundwave. I look forward to seeing you there.” 

Soundwave nodded, decided that he done talking for the moment. He pet Laserbeak lightly as he walked about of the room. 

Starscream put a reminder on his HUD for the meeting. Tactical meeting for an attack on the Ark. 

An attack on the Ark. Where Skyfire was. 

“Oh  _ frag _ !” 

* * *

The halls on the Ark with the too short ceilings were quiet. The sun set and the other bots had adopted the Earth tradition of sleeping when sun went down and waking up when it came up. To think that an entire planet practically functioned around that system was incredible to Skyfire! On Cybertron, a sunless planet, they didn’t have anything even remotely like that, and it was strange to see his own people adjusting to such a wasteful system. 

But it worked for the organics, who needed the light to see or to stay warm, to simply function, and that was fascinating! Everything followed it, animals and plants, reptiles, birds, humans. Organic life was so complex and wasteful and confusing and it made Skyfire’s head spin in curiosity! From the sun to the plants, only 10% of energy was preserved and consumed by the animals that ate those plants. And to the animals that ate those animals, they similarly only got 10% of the energy. From energon to Cybertronian, there was 82% energy transfer. A 72% difference in energy uptake. 

Organics seemed so primitive if you looked at the numbers. A million statistics could tell you all the ways that organics seemed underdeveloped and useless. But you couldn’t understand the true value of studying them unless you saw them up close. If you traveled across the stars to their planets, their homes, and watched them operate. Organics were as complex as Cybertronians, as complex as the stars, as complex as everything in the world. 

Skyfire looked up at the moon. Earth’s moon was small, cute for an astronomical body! Earth itself was so small compared to Cybertron. He’d mentioned it to a human that stayed around base - his name was  _ Spike _ , of all things, it had been so hard to not burst into laughter, and he knew that humans didn’t use the same terminology but holy  _ frag! _ \- and the human had just waved him off and said that many planets in their solar system were larger than Earth. Skyfire had failed to convey just  _ how _ much larger most planets were. 

He wished he could’ve gotten Wheeljack to help him explain. From the moment he met him, Skyfire instantly clung to every trait that Wheeljack shared with Starscream. Not even Starscream, the one who belonged to Megatron and the Decepticons,  _ his _ Starry, his little ball of light, his fluttery, blushy, incredible boyfriend, almost-conjunx. They both ranted the same way, moved their arms around and nearly smacked the people around them in excitement, they both beamed with burning bright eyes, it was incredible how much they matched up nearly perfectly. 

Of course, since he’d told Wheeljack so, no matter how accidental it had been, he’d avoided the mech like the plague. No way was he touching that can of worms - a curious human phrase but cute! - and he didn’t think Wheeljack would either. Perceptor wasn’t nearly as nice to talk to, he was rigid and couldn’t expand his mind to consider the enormity of what science could be if you searched beyond yourself. 

He’d been hanging out with Ratchet, if only because he gave him checkups on the scratches on his back from his berth and he’d turned out to be a wonderful conversationalist when he was actually calm and not screaming, blowing a fuse, and throwing wrenches around. 

Turns out Ratchet was a bit of a scientist himself, as well. While he didn’t particularly appreciate organic life as Skyfire did - “They’re just gross, tiny little things!” - he had a special place in his spark for looking skywards. 

That shared interest had been the reason that for the past few night, Ratchet had been tagging along with Skyfire to the top of the hill, to help him catalogue all the stars. The top of the hill had been their little safe haven, away from the bustle of the Ark, and that was exactly where they were headed now.

After having been silent for the whole walk, Ratchet spoke up, albeit a bit groggily. “I’m sorry that I was late today, it’s just…” He sighed deeply, rubbing a hand down his face. “Sideswipe’s parachutes got messed up and he took a hard fall. Nothing fatal but finding all the damage was half of the issue. Didn’t wanna leave anything unrepaired, you know?” 

Skyfire chuckles lightly. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. I’m just glad that you can come.” 

Another sigh, this one shorter and harsher. More sarcastic, if anything. “I might not be able to for much longer.”

They reached the top of the hill and Ratchet laid down the armful of datapads he’d brought along. “Mind if I do reports? If there’s one thing I  _ hate _ about being CMO is all the paperwork. Optimus makes me fill it all out too. I don’t get why! I already know what I did! And it’s not like we have any other medics that are gonna read it all!” 

Skyfire looked at the, frankly  _ towering _ , stack of datapads. “Go right ahead, Ratchet. You look like you need as much time as you can get to finish those.”

“Ha! Tell me about it! But there is no way in the Pits that I’m staying stuck in my office that long just for people to walk in and distract me every two kliks! Like the Pits! No way!” 

Ratchet’s face was turned down into what Skyfire could only accurately have described as a pure pout. It was strange to see someone as professional as Ratchet act so childish. It gave Skyfire a strange feeling, as if Ratchet wasn’t as old and wise and Optimus or the Magnus were.

“It makes sense that you wouldn’t want to stay in the office. And it’s fine if you can’t make it, I understand completely. Although, why, if you don’t mind me asking?” 

Ratchet sighed, a third time to convey a third completely different emotion, somewhere between wariness and sadness. “There’s radio chatter that Starscream’s back on duty now. There’s a good chance there’ll be an attack soon. I have to get the medbay ready in case there is, you know, restock and all that.” 

“Wait, what do you mean ‘back on duty’? Was he out of commision?” Skyfire didn’t mean to sound worried, but he could hear in seeping into his tone. 

“Yes, he was. We don’t know exactly why. He wasn’t injured in battle, so our working theory is that it was Megatron but-”

“What do you mean Megatron?” Skyfire was sitting up now, aware that he was probably intimidating as he still sat heads above Ratchet, but Ratchet didn’t seem scared. 

“Well… Megatron has a tendency to… physically harm his subordinates if they get out of line. Starscream’s hardly ever  _ in _ line. You’d think he’s gotten used to it by now, but that doesn’t change the fact that it still happens.” 

Skyfire could tell by Ratchet’s instant face of regret that he was not hiding his emotions well. 

“S-seriously?” 

“...yes. Yes, really. But the point is, now that he’s back, Megatron’s going to get him to plan an attack. Megatron would never admit it, but Starscream’s really the tactician.”

“Oh. That’s. Interesting. He’s accomplished?”

“Very much so. He’s a great tactician.” 

“I’m not surprised. He was always good with data and stuff. I didn’t expect the more… practical application, though. He always crunched my data.” 

Ratchet smirked. “Was he good at it?”

“Definitely! He never messed up on the calculations! I would have to interpret it though, he could never read the graphs right!” 

Ratchet couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. “Seriously? You’d think he’d be able to if he was a scientist.” 

“He just never understands the differences in the scales and stuff. We-” Skyfire stopped suddenly, a sad blue washing over his face. “He was going to take an extra class in the off-season to learn it properly, but that’s the time when we planned our extraterrestrial trip and he canceled it so we could leave on time.” 

Ratchet nodded slowly, looking down at the grass. “Your last trip with him, right?”

“First one too. It took forever to convince the Academy to give us funding and permission. Flyers and all that. They thought I should go alone, since I was the shuttle anyways. Star fought hard for it.” 

“Hard to think that now he’s fighting that hard against us.” 

“Yeah. It really is.” 

Ratchet turned his body toward Skyfire. “Listen, I’m sorry I brought this up. It really wasn’t my intention. I was just trying to explain why I might not be around for the next few days.”

“It’s fine. This is a war, after all. I guess that I should’ve expected it. We’re lucky that Starscream wasn’t active for a while then, huh? Means Autobots don’t get hurt.” 

“I’m sorry, Skyfire,” Ratchet stood up, ready to leave, “that’s just the way that it is.” 

“Yeah, I get it. It’s wartime now.” 

Ratchet didn’t say another word. He gave Skyfire a sad smile, a smile of someone who’s too young to have lost too much. 

“Ratchet! I have a question.”

Ratchet threw a glance over his shoulder to show that he was listening. 

“How old are you?” 

Ratchet smirked - or was it a sneer? It was surprisingly hard to tell. - and just waved a hand. “Isn’t that the mystery of the vorn? You aren’t the first that’s asked.”

Skyfire tilted his head, a shy smile playing at his lips. “Will I be the first to know?” 

Ratchet scoffed. “What makes you think that?”

“You seem like you want somebody to know.” 

His face dropped into a line, his eyes wide with shock. “How did you-”

“Starscream does the same thing when he wants me to know something he doesn’t want to say.” 

“Never thought I’d get compares to Starscream.”

“Never thought I’d see a CMO as young as you.” 

“How do you know I’m young? I could be older than you.”

“But you’re not.”

Ratchet sighed, a sardonic mirth to his tone. “I’m really not. I’m too young to be doing this.”

“How young?”

Ratchet took a pause, looking down the hill and not at Skyfire. “Too young.”

“How young, Ratchet?”

Ratchet sounded like his tongue was too big in his mouth, just like he’d managed to get himself into shoes too big for his feet and problems too big for his head.

“I’m a few vorns younger than Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.” 

Skyfire stood up in a panic. “Ratchet, you’re practically a sparkling!”

He whipped around quickly, nearly snarling at Skyfire. “I know that! I know that!”

“Who knows Ratchet? Does Optimus know?”

“No, nobody knows! Just you! Do you really think he’d let me be out in battle if he knew?”

“Maybe! He lets Bumblebee fight!” 

“Bumblebee is trained ops! I’m just a medic! He’d bench me! I wouldn’t be out in the field! They’d have to cart anyone injured back to base and by then, it might be too late. I have to be out there, Skyfire. I have to be.” 

His voice was small and weak. He was just trying his best, Primus, to keep everyone alive. Even if it put him in the line of fire, he was going to do his job.

“You can tell them. They’ll protect you. They’ll help you.”

“There’s no guarantee.”

Skyfire let his hands fall to his sides. Here was this young mech feeling like the world was on his shoulders. 

“...well, I’ll always be here. Every night.” 

Ratchet let his body relax, more out of exhaustion than actually being calm. “Right. Right, thank you. I have to go. I have work to do.” 

Skyfire couldn’t help the bubble of hope in his chest pop, but he decided he’d rather give Ratchet the benefit of the doubt. 

“I’ll be here if you decide to come back.”

Ratchet’s tired smile gave Skyfire a little bit of hope back. 

“I’ll see what I can do.” 

Skyfire watched Ratchet walk down the hill, hands hanging limply and purposelessly. The sky was dark blue, speckled with white dots that stretched across the horizons, and a bright white moon pierced through the heavens. 

Somewhere on Earth, Starscream would probably look up and see that same moon. Either flying high above the ground, free for a brief moment or from the window of a Decepticon planning room. He might see Starscream again soon, dropping missiles down on him from the beautiful blue sky.

“Aw, frag.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A sudden hit of inspiration is the only reason I got this chapter out so fast. I actually had to break it into two, this half and a half that will go up in a week or so! Thank you for the wonderful support on the story so far and I hope you all keep enjoying!


	6. war drums in the distance?

The klaxon echoed through the halls of the Ark along with the thunder of pedes shaking the walls. Everything was doused in the flashing red lights and screams battered Skyfire from all sides. The Ark shook again, an explosion somewhere, that had to have hurt someone, and Primus, Skyfire hoped that Ratchet wouldn’t be too swamped. Someone pushed by his leg to get through the hallways and the building shook again, much closer this time. 

Skyfire fell against the wall, his wing scraping it the whole way down and his hand was promptly trampled by more mechs running to escape. He screamed, maybe, he wasn’t really sure; Despite being a shuttle with a voice box louder than most mechs heads, he couldn’t hear himself. He wanted to lie down and cradle his hand but he forced himself up to his feet to shuffle through the halls again. 

Out. He needed to get out. Out onto the battlefield and there, maybe he could help. He could load up with the Prime and the SIC and TIC and Ratchet and any injured mechs and he could get them all out of there, but then he might get shot down and then everyone would die and- Oh  _ Primus _ , he didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t built for war, he wasn’t built for battle, he was built for science and why in Primus’s name did he have to-

The hall was empty except for the abrasive klaxon. Everyone had evacuated. 

“Oh  _ sla- _ ” 

The wall behind him exploded and his audials screeched with static feedback. His wings burned at the hinges and he screamed again, loud enough to feel his voice box shudder in his neck in pain. Over the sound on the wall crumbling, he could hear jet engines roaring away, a trio of them, most undoubtedly Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker. 

He pushed himself up to his knees and frantically commed Ratchet. No response. His wings burned and twitched, pain shooting up his spine and forcing him back down onto his hands. He could vaguely hear Ratchet over the feedback whining into his audials and he thought he screamed again, however strangled and forced the sound was. Smoke filled his vents and his fans kicked on to try and purge it with little avail. 

Distantly, he heard the engines of jets grow closer again. The trine was circling back around. 

“Well,” Skyfire thought, looking out of the hole in the wall to catch a glimpse of their pointed wings and bright colors, “I had a good run.” 

He laid back down on the ground, keeping pressure off his injured wings, waiting for the next missiles to be shot, not bothering to turn his fans up against the smoke and ash clogging his every vent and seam. 

Vaguely, he heard the jets grow closer and louder as the trine dipped down to drop more bombs. 

But the bombs didn’t come and the noise of the thrusters in air faded away once again, leaving only the noise of the alarm system of the Ark. 

Skyfire barely heard the clack of running pedes towards him and his spark lightened. 

“R-Ratchet? I-is that you?” The smoke was thick and his optics just registered the sickly gray coating everything.

A hand came out of the clouds of darkness, the paint bubbled and half melted off, probably due to the heat of the flames consuming the Ark. It held his shoulder and propped him up. 

Skyfire winced as his wings shifted and looked down at the hand on his shoulder and the other, still slightly painted, on his wrist. “I thought you didn’t get my comm-“ But Ratchet was already dragging him along, away from the rubble and the flames. 

The sunlight came as a pleasant change from the bright red alarm lights and he vented in a big cycle of fresh air, coughing out a proper cloud of soot. 

“Thank you  _ so _ much, Ratche-” Skyfire turned to thank him, but froze in his tracks. Standing in front of him wasn’t a red and white ambulance with a perpetual scowl and trademark chevron. It was a seeker. Red and blue and white, and now black too, from all the ash tainted his typically pristine paint job. His face was twisted into a tangled mess of concern and worry, love and contempt, sewn into a single, expression, that confused Skyfire and the mech himself. 

Starscream stood there, beautifully blue paint melted off his hands, limp at his sides, eyes so wide, he looked like he might cry, wings tilted low in uncertainty. 

Before Skyfire could open his mouth to speak, or probably not, it would have come out more as a yelp or a whine, Starscream squeezed out a sentence, about as successfully as Skyfire himself would have.

“You idiot!” 

Not much of a sentence, but more than Skyfire himself has said. 

“Why would you not evacuate?!” 

Skyfire’s optics grew to the size of saucers as he reset his voice box with a spatter of static. 

“What?”

Starscream huffed, throwing his arms out in a flair, “When the alarms go off, you’re supposed to evacuate! That’s what all the alarms and lights are for, in case you didn’t know!”

“But… you didn’t want me to… you know?”

“Of course I didn’t want you to die, stupid!” Starscream’s wings hiking straight up on his back, “Why do you think we started bombing on the  _ other side _ of the Ark?!” His voice started to gain a shrill edge that Skyfire recognized as pure panic.

“That… was on purpose?” 

Starscream screeched, unapologetically shouting to the heavens. “Of  _ course _ it was on purpose! What kind of tactician do you fragging take me for?” 

Skyfire beamed down at Star and kneeled down to reach his eye level. “I knew you wouldn’t-“

“Wouldn’t what? See those messages you’re sending your new sweetspark? It hasn’t even been a month and we were engaged and as soon as you join the Autobots, you just throw it away?”

A wheeze was all that Skyfire could get out. What? What was Starscream  _ on _ ? 

“Star, what are you-”

“Save it!” Starscream snapped his fingers at Skyfire’s face, “I don’t need your pity! What you do with your life is your prerogative! Just know that I’ll NEVER FORGIVE YOU!”

“Star, you’ve got it all wrong!” He couldn’t let Star think this for even a second more. How could such a brilliant mind be so fragging  _ dense _ sometimes? 

“Oh,  _ do _ I, Skyfire?” Starscream put his hands on his hips, extremely unimpressed with whatever excuse he was about to utter out.

But before Skyfire could make the stupid excuse, Starscream screamed. A sharp pain struck his spark and Starscream fell on his knees, hands clutching his chest as if trying to tear the pain out. After a minute of the pain not going away, another dose of it hit the other side of his spark, forcing Starscream flat to the floor, curled up in a ball from the pain. 

But almost worse that was the knowledge of what was causing this unbearable pain. 

His trine mates. Thundercracker, Skywarp! They were hurt! 

What happened to them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live! Finals happened, kicked my ass, did a summer class, kicked my ass, am gonna get the results of my AP exams back soon and I'm freaking out! Good news is, that with school finished (for real this time), I'll have way more time to write! So I'm definitely happy about that.   
> As always, I hoped you guys liked the chapter, more is on the way, and comments and kudos are always appreciated! Stay frosty, all you awesome people, and thanks for sticking with the story this far!   
> Peace!


	7. Trinemates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Notes up top this time because I've got some announcements!
> 
> First, regarding this story directly. Although this is a pet project of mine, I still want to use this as an opportunity to improve my writing and give you guys the best product possible, so, as of now, I'm looking for beta readers for this fic and possibly the next one I've got planned. If you're interested, pop a comment down below or email me at starsanduniversesao3@gmail.com!
> 
> Next is about the spin off fic I've got going on, Love Letters: Snippets. For now I've got two chapters up, one of them exploring the Young Ratchet idea that a lot of you loved! Starting now, I'll take requests for it too, so if you have a character or idea from Love Letters that you wanna see fleshed out a bit more, I'll write about it and post it over there. Leave requests anywhere, this fic, that fic, or email me! I will be prioritizing beta reader requests as a thank you! Thanks for reading this far and thanks to all of you who leave comments and kudos, I really appreciate it! Love you all, enjoy the chapter!

**_Thundercracker_ **

“Hey, Screamer, where you going?” 

“I have some business I need to take care of.”

“In the middle of a raid? You sure that’s the best idea?” 

“Yes, Thundercracker, I am positive. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.” 

“We won’t, Screamer! Double triple promise!”

“I’ll hold you to it, Skywarp. Be back in ten.” 

There goes your trine leader, diving down to where you just bombed. If you could put money on it, you’d bet it has to do with that big shuttle, Skyfire, but no one’s taken you up on the bet, not even Skywarp. 

You idle your engines as you swoop back up from your missile drop, watching Warper teleport up ahead, breaking formation the second Screamer left. 

“Warp, slow down, Star said not to do anything dumb!’

All you get is a comm back, “Don’t worry! I’ve got this!” He’s already far enough out of range that he can’t just shout back. He’s probably stuck in a wall or something. Again. 

Skywarp snickers with delight over your trine bond, a tickling feeling that makes you twitch your ailerons and start to roll. An annoyed twinge of your bond back at him is enough to make him calm down for a second, but before you can ask him to circle back to you, you feel like you’re being dipped into a vat of barely boiling oil, tingling with discomfort. 

Being the trine leader, Starscream’s emotions always ring in a bit louder and clearer than you or Warp’s, but it’s usually not a problem. His outwardly expressive personality takes care of most of his emotional regulation, so it tends to not “leak” into you or Sky rather than be blatantly in the faces of Megatron and Soundwave, although Soundwave seems to have been spared more recent days. 

You check where you’re flying for a second, a bit low but clear skies all around and no visible Autobots, so you focus your energy on the bond. Starscream’s side is a low sizzle of panic and your spark pricks at you with the burning cry of “Help him already!”

On the side, you can feel Sky’s spark waver, probably debating whether or not to dive down and look for Star before he got any more exasperated. 

The rest happens in a blink. 

Your spark sears suddenly, from Skywarp’s side, a rush of pain and relentless  _ screaming _ , there’s no other name for it, even if there’s no sound, and you know without thinking twice that Sky is down, not just shot, but properly  _ down _ , enough to make you take a nosedive and pull up just before the ground. Before you can reciprocate any feelings through your bond, you feel a burning pain hit your wing and  _ Oh slag, you’ve been shot. _

You catch a glimpse of a small pair of red horns flashing by as you tear into the ground and  _ That little fragger shot you! _ is all you get the chance to think before the trine bond feedback becomes so loud and piercing that you pass out before your skidding comes to a stop. 

* * *

 

**_Skywarp_ **

I barely notice that I’m awake with my optics still offline. My audials are barely picking up sound, they probably blew out when I fell. The wall I’m propped up against, I think it’s a wall, anyways, is really cold and I don’t like it at all! What happened? 

Okay, so, Screamer went down to the bomb site, then I warped away for Cracker, then… Then what? 

More sensors come online and everything starts hurting. My hands are cuffed in front of me, but good news! I feel the broken glass on my cockpit and start pulling out some of the bigger chunks that are stuck in my chest! The part of my cockpit that’s still intact is pooling the energon I’m leaking, but I don’t really care. Not the worst that’s happened to me. 

As I’m pulling out glass shards, I feel another thing nearby. From the shape, I guess it’s a pain patch, and that just nails in the idea that I’m an Autobot prisoner now. I don’t know why they’d give me a pain patch if they wouldn’t actually take out the things stabbing me, but Autobots are stupid, so I don’t give it much thought. 

Vaguely, the door to what I can only guess is my cell opens, creaking so much that even my audials working at a solid 20.1% efficiency pick it up loud and clear. Dumb Autobots can’t even oil a door right! They’re as dumb as Starsc-

_ Oh Primus, is everyone okay?! _

I send as strong of a pulse as I can through my trine bond. Thundercracker’s end feels…  _ dead _ . 

“No,” I remind myself sternly, “He’s not dead. He’s probably just passed out. If he was dead, I would be too.”

Starscream feels dull, not quite absent, but just a distant hum of exhaustion that hurts more to focus on than to not, but it’s news that at least two of us are alive - “Thundercracker is  _ alive _ , don’t forget that!” -  so I hone in on Star and send a big package of comfort his way. He sends a mild pulse back, his own little way of saying “thank you so much” and “thank the stars you’re okay.” 

It goes unsaid between us, but I know we’re both hyper aware of Thundercracker’s side of the bond, waiting anxiously for that little blip of recognition and consciousness that lets us know when Cracker wakes up. Knowing Star, he’s probably thinking  _ if _ Cracker wakes up. He’s not dead now. Doesn’t mean he won’t be. 

Stop it!! Stop it!! He’s alive, I know it! He’ll stay alive! He’ll fight so hard to stay alive, we have to have faith in that, in him! He’s going to be okay. We’re all going to be okay. 

Outside my cell, an old voice starts shouting, there’s a clang of metal against the wall and the shouting gets louder. The door is still open, I can tell from the sound echoing down the halls and into my room. 

“What were you thinking?!” The voice screeches, and another metallic clank, probably a slap, I realize, rings out to my pained audials. 

“How could you bring him to the brig before the medbay?! Do you have a single-”  **Clang!** “Processing-”  **Slam!** “Circuit-”  **Bonk!** “LEFT?!” There’s a sharp ricochet of something flying into the wall, then onto the floor, then back to a wall, coming to rest on the floor with solid ring. Pedesteps come into my room, but my weak audials do not serve me well to be able to tell when the pissed off mech is right above me, and it’s only when I feel a pair of gentle hands helping me to my feet that I notice. 

“W-who-?” I try to ask, but the mech’s a step ahead of me. 

“My name is Ratchet, the Autobot CMO, and for the record, if I’d been informed we had an injured prisoner, your first stop would’ve been the medbay,  _ not a prison cell _ .”

I get the feeling that the last bit wasn’t directed at me, and I’m right, as another voice, who I immediately recognize from the battlefield as Ironhide, squeaks out a small “Sorry!” 

“W-what about my trinemate? Where’s Thundercracker? He’s hurt, is he fixed already?!” I know Starscream would have my head for letting the Autobots know of my “personal affiliations” but TC’s more important! 

“Yes, he is fixed, he is currently in stasis. He didn’t have many injuries, less than you have, at a glance, but I think some sort processor feedback caused his systems to crash. I’ve got him on an energon drip to keep his fuel levels steady until he regains consciousness.”

My wings droop down in relief and I let go of a breath I’m aware I’m holding, barely hearing Ratchet’s little chuckle behind me. “Right now, we need to focus on you. Is there anything major damage you can already tell you have, any sensor warnings?”

Ratchet talks in a strange cadence. He sounds like me, in a really weird way, or like Rumble and Frenzy, but he uses the words like Optimus Prime. Just by his voice, I can’t quite tell if he’s peers with Ironhide or with Sideswipe. I shake the thought out of my head though, and just blurt back, “Well, I can barely hear and I can’t see at all!” 

Ratchet coughs roughly, clearly not expecting such earnest honesty from a Decepticon. “A-and you hadn’t said anything?” 

“I just woke up!” 

I can literally hear the air rush as Ratchet whips around on a dime to Ironhide. “I thought you said you brought him in conscious?” The tone borders on a very Thundercracker-like deadpan sarcasm and I can’t stop a snicker from leaking out as Ironhide’s rickety, old man shoulders creak when he shrugs. “I… thought he wa-” 

“Really?” in the absolute flattest tone leaves the medic’s mouth. My spark feels jubilant as he acts  _ just _ like Thundercracker on a good day. My little giggle turns into a full blown fit of laughter that makes my tanks hurt. 

“And what are you laughing at, Decepticon?” Ironhide snaps, probably embarrassed that he’s getting chewed out in front of me by the tiny medic. 

“H-He’s acting just like Thundercracker!” Now it’s Ironhide’s turn to laugh in Ratchet’s face instead. 

Ratchet’s hand doesn’t leave my back as he leads me to the medbay, even as he yells some more at a hysterical Ironhide. 

Okay. I’m an Autobot prisoner. But this Autobot doesn’t seem so bad. Maybe there are some Autobots that aren’t dumb. 

I hear Ratchet smack Ironhide again with some metal rod thing. 

Maybe they are all dumb. But that can wait until I can see again and I’ll judge for myself.

* * *

 

**_Starscream_ **

Starscream laid flat on the ground on the cave Skyfire had sequestered him in after the battle. His spark was still as sore as his wings were after a whipping but still, he stayed zoomed in on every prickle or sensation, waiting for his other trinemate to wake up.

Skywarp had woken up a few hours ago and despite it all, he hadn’t been horribly offlined by the Autobots yet. Thundercracker’s third of the bond was stagnant, not transmitting anything since the original feedback fallout. Skywarp had let him know that Thundercracker was still alive, though of course, the twerp wouldn’t considering the “for now.” Anything could happen in Autobot custody. 

The cave was warm beyond all reason, trapping in the heat and humidity from the desert outside. Starscream swore that his paint was going melt off at this rate, but Skyfire had insisted that this was the best place for him to stay for the time being until he recovered. Apparently, he’d heard through the grapevine that Megatron’s treatment of his SIC was less than stellar and didn’t trust the warlord enough to release Star into his care. 

He’d never admit it, but Star was, on a deep level, very thankful. He didn’t know how he’d explain his absence to Megatron, but he had plenty of time in this cave to think about it. 

Footsteps came into the cave, crumbling rocks on the ground into powder, and Starscream instantly stiffened. Every time Skyfire came in, Starscream couldn’t help the rush in his processors that poked  _ what if it’s someone else _ ? 

“Starscream, are you still here?” Skyfire walked in every time assuming that Starscream had already left him behind. Funny how the tables turn on such a short notice. 

“Yes, yes, I’m here. Please, Fire, if I were going to leave, I would have done it on the first day, not on the seventh!” He flinched at the frustrated huff that he got in return. Before he could apologize, Skyfire continued. 

“I know that, Starscream. I don’t think you’re going to leave. I’m asking in case you’re hurt or someone else found you.” Wasn’t that lovely? Starscream shot him in the chest and Skyfire  _ still _ cared more about him than his own stupid, sappy plating. 

“Well, you should be more careful! What if Megatron or Optimus Prime were waiting here for you to incriminate yourself?! If you didn’t shout my name, you could at least pretend that you were here by chance!” 

“But…” Skyfire looked at him, baffled beyond belief, “You would just tell them.” 

Star’s wings flared up without his own accord as his voice, even more scratchy than his usual tone, screeched, “Who do you think I am? You think that I would bring the point up at all if I didn’t completely intend on covering for you?!” 

Skyfire’s EM field wobbled with uncertainty, such a strong fluctuation that Starscream could feel it clearly from across the cave. “...you didn’t care when you shot me.” 

Disregarding all pain and dizziness that his spark was infecting the rest of his body with, Starscream stood up, proud and tall. “It was me or Megatron! My null ray was at 20% power! You’re lucky Megatron didn’t rip  _ your _ wings off too!” 

“Megatron’s ripped your wings off?” The voice was fragile, so close to sobs that Starscream vents all closed on their own accord. 

“I shouldn’t have said that. That’s not the point. The point is-” 

“No, Starscream, the point is that you’re not listening to me! You’re not taking care of yourself! You shouldn’t just let him hurt you!”

Memories slammed Starscream in the face like a truck. Skyfire had never done anything less than care for him fully. He could remember Skyfire buffing his wings after a long day and gently humming until he drifted off into a peaceful slumber. Skyfire would stay up late into the night, waiting for Star to come back from his last lab or lecture, and greet him as he came through the door, “How was your day, my shining Star?” 

“Star, are you even paying attention to me? I swear, in the time I was gone, you lost all common sense!” 

“Perhaps.” The word was spoken honestly, no biting sarcasm embedded in it. “You were my common sense.” 

Skyfire took a deep vent and put his head in his hands for a few seconds. “Turn around, Star. Let me see your wings.” 

Starscream shuffled around in his spot, head and wings hung low. He didn’t know what possessed him to say something like that. It was stupid and full of feelings he didn’t want to sort through. 

A warm sensation covered his wings and Star couldn’t help but sigh contently. “W-what is that?”

“A warm towel to help get some of the grime on your wings to soften up so I can wipe it off. Dirty wings are a testament to Unicron’s existence.” 

“Careful, Skyfire!” Starscream snickered, “You’re starting to sound like me!” 

Skyfire scoffed and rolled his optics. “All of the Autobots already think that anyways, now you too? Frag my life!” 

Star was too drowsy to direct effort to stop his laughter. He heard himself snort and slapped his hands over his mouth, but Skyfire’s returning laughter made the attempt hopeless. 

With Skyfire’s hands on his wings, gently cleaning and polishing them, Starscream’s spark hurt for a completely different reason than his trine bond. But he could enjoy a little piece of the Allspark, an old comfort from the mech he loved. 

As he drifted off, he vaguely realized the damning truth he’d admitted to himself. The mech he loved. Well, it wasn’t false. He loved Skyfire. He always had. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I experimented a bit with style in this chapter to try and flesh out the trine's personalities! Not sure if it was effective yet, so tell me what you think! Thanks for reading, and as always comments and criticisms are all encouraged! See you next chapter!


	8. Friendship is Magic

“Ratchet?” 

“Yes, Skyfire?”

“Can I tell you something?”

“Of course.” 

“I miss Cybertron.” Skyfire’s grip on the tool box he was holding for Ratchet slipped and the tools clattered to the ground. 

“Well, who doesn’t?” Ratchet bent over to start picking up the scattered mess on the floor. 

“I mean, I miss how things used to be.” 

“Is this about Starscream?” 

Ratchet didn’t have to look up to know Skyfire was blushing. “Uh, am I that obvious?” 

“A little bit. You know you can talk to me about him.” 

“And I really do appreciate it,” Skyfire started to try and pick up some of the larger tools he could actually grasp with his large fingers, “it would be awful if I just had to wipe him from my memory. Despite everything, he’s still the mech I spent most of my career working with. We were close.” 

“Obviously. No offense, but everyone can tell you still harbor some care for him, no matter how much of a treacherous leech everyone thinks he is.” 

“Do…” Skyfire’s voice went soft, a large contrast to his hulking size, “do you think that?” 

Ratchet looked at the ceiling, brow furrowing in thought. “Well, no, I don’t. But I think that’s because of what you’ve been telling me about him. Well, you and Skywarp.” 

Skyfire’s optics bounced open. “You’ve been talking with Skywarp?”

“More like he’s been talking to me,” Ratchet chuckled, “he’s a very talkative mech.”

“Yeah,” Skyfire carefully organized the tools on the wall that he’d knocked down with his wing at some point, “he’s always been like that. Whenever he would come over to Star and I’s room, he’d talk for _hours!_ ” 

Ratchet couldn’t hide his smile. “His stories are better than Optimus’s! They’re… they’re crazy but in a weird way. They’re also so mundane!” He couldn’t help but snort in laughter, “it’s like, I have no clue how he got stuck in that trash compactor, but I’m also amazed that it was just a trash compactor and not an enemy base or something!” 

“I suppose so! I guess I hadn’t considered that,” Sky fumbled a beaker and scrambled to get it back on the table, “so, I take it you talk to Skywarp a lot?” 

Ratchet chuckled nervously, “W-Well, not avidly so, but I’m keeping a close eye on his condition while Thundercracker is still out, and it just comes with being in close proximity to him.” 

“Oh, like you don’t _love_ the banter while you’re working!” 

Ratchet waved a wrench threateningly in his direction, a pale blush dusting his cheeks. “You better watch it, Sky! You’re on my turf and I can take you out of it!”

“Oh, are you blushing? Aw, Ratch, you made a _friend_ , didn’t you? You made friends with a ‘Con!” 

“Shut up! I have not! I am showing common courtesy to my patient!”

“You don’t even show that to the Prime! Skywarp managed to wriggle his little ramblings into your spark, huh?” 

A wrench bounced off his helm, smack in the middle of his forehead.

“Don’t say that! If Red Alert hears it, he’ll have me stuffed in the brig!” 

Skyfire covered his mouth to muffle his hysterical laughter, laughing right over Ratchet’s indignant cries. As Ratchet kept getting redder-faced from shame and Skyfire getting redder-faced from hysteria, neither noticed a mech knock on the door and walk in. 

“Uh, hello?” 

Ratchet and Skyfire both took a second to calm down enough to properly realize who had walked in. 

Wheeljack was holding his hands in front of himself awkwardly, putting too much weight on one side and tilting his head to the left, helm pulled down by the weight of his sole headfin. His right one was in his soot covered hand and his wide optics showed that he knew how ridiculous he looked. 

Skyfire got up to walk out but Ratchet glared at him and all but snarled, “Sit the frag down, I’m not finished with you!” He called over his shoulder, “Jackie, get on your berth, the one in the corner! I got your name carved into it so we would all know who it’s main inhabitant was!” 

“Aw, c’mon, Ratch, you didn’t have to do that. Everyone already knows anyways.” Wheeljack glanced over at Skyfire and waved shyly, not meeting Sky’s eyes at all. 

“So what’d you blow up this time, Jack? Other than your face.” 

“Oh, just boring stuff. It wasn’t even an experimental project or anything, I just miscalculated some chemicals.” 

Skyfire couldn’t help but pipe up. “And that big of an explosion happened? By how much did you miscalculate?”

Wheeljack finally looked at Skyfire in the face, eyes bright with scientific excitement. “Uh, I’m not sure! I just know that I messed something up! You… you wanna check my numbers? Usually Percy does it, but I think he’s mad at me right now.” 

Skyfire held out a hand with a smile. “Show me the work.”

Jack handed over a datapad full of chemical equations and drawings. Nothing out of Skyfire’s realm of knowledge, he noticed, as he skimmed over the equations and noticed the application was towards… “Pyrotechnics, Wheeljack? You didn’t seem like the type.” 

WJ scratched the back of his head. “Well, Spike said a human holiday is coming up where they use fireworks and I figured I could make some. It’s not that much different from any other explosive. I thought I knew enough.”

“Wheeljack, what were you thinking?” Ratchet smacked him with a wrench on the still-attached helmfin. “Fireworks! Are you kidding me? With each explosion, your neural net gets knocked farther out of position!” 

Skyfire tuned out the budding argument between the two as he took in the numbers in front of him. He double checked calculations, the validity of the chemical reactions, the units, the- wait. Was that? 

“Wheeljack, I think I found your problem.”

Jackie perked up. “Oh, what’d I do?”

“In this formula, you need a one to two ratio of fuel to oxidizer, with the fuel being the limiting reactant. You were using grams, but you put the fuel in kilograms. You added too much fuel by a factor of a thousand.” 

Even with his faceplate on, Wheeljack’s face perfectly conveyed an emotion Skyfire was all too familiar with. A glass thousand yard stare into the souls of glorious scientists from the past and a stone hard straight face as you presented your incompetence before them. A look Sky had seen on Starscream any time he tried to finish a report too late at night when he couldn’t even count to three anymore. 

Ratchet broke the silence with a simple, but frank, “Wheeljack, you imbecile.” 

Wheeljack just shook his head gently, “I can’t hear you, Ratchet. Apparently my neural net got _completely_ knocked out of position.”

Handing the datapad back - and placing it on the medberth when it became clear Wheeljack was too distraught to grab it - Skyfire let his curiosity get the best of him. “Do you normally work in kilograms or did your mind just decide to blank out?”

Another deep sigh came from behind the faceplate. “I’ve made that mistake so many times. _So_ many times. I should know better by now. I just never get used to how fragging _tiny_ the humans are and how all of their units are so fragging small!” Wheeljack pinched his fingers close together, with only a small space left between them. “They are literally this big! I mean, how am I supposed to see that much fuel and say, ‘Oh yeah, I think that looks about right!’ I mean it’s fragging ridiculous!” Wheeljack threw his hands up dramatically and slumped all the way back down onto the berth. 

“Skyfire’s right. You _do_ remind me of Starscream.” 

Skyfire tensed at the mention of his screwup. He still hadn’t talked to Wheeljack about it. Before he could apologize on Ratchet’s behalf, Wheeljack chuckled and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I can see it too.” 

“So you’re not mad?” Skyfire’s shock was clear in his bug-eyed optics.

“No, not at all, Sky,” Wheeljack waved a hand dismissively, “first of all, you're not even wrong, and second of all, you care about that mech so much, I should’ve known you didn’t mean anything bad by it. So,” Wheeljack extended his hand to Skyfire, “We cool?”

Skyfire couldn’t help but let a nervous laugh out as he shook Wheeljack’s hand. “Yeah, _we_ cool.” 

“Alright,” Ratchet piped up, “now that everyone’s happy and fixed, I need to go check on the trine’s conditions! So you can both leave the medbay now!”

“Actually, I want to talk to Skywarp. Do you think I could?”

Ratchet huffed out, “Yeah, yeah, sure. Just don’t distract him when I’m giving him instructions. I need to update him on Thundercracker’s condition too.” 

“Didn’t Red tell you not to, Ratty?” Wheeljack teased. 

“Oh, hush! They’re a trine! They deserve to know what happened to each other. Skywarp definitely deserves to see the trine mate he has nearby, considering the other is AWOL.” 

Within a few minutes, Skywarp was escorted in by Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, talking their audials off. 

“-so that’s how you arm a glitter bomb with a timer! You’ve gotta be careful with the wiring though, because if you do it wrong, it’ll blow and you’ll have to do the glitter walk of shame.” 

“Really?” Sideswipe chuckled, “that’s genius!”

“You know, if you get glitter on yourself, there’s this human invention called a lint roller and it’s very effective on removing it!” Sunsteaker offered. 

“Oh really? Thanks guys, you’re the best!” 

“Skywarp! Come here and take a seat; I need to run a scan.”

Skywarp all but bounced onto the bed and Ratchet dismissed the twins, who sulked at the fact that they couldn’t talk to their new best buddy anymore. 

“How have you been feeling, Skywarp?” 

“Well, I’ve been feeling! I think the pain patch is running out.”

“Hmm,” Ratchet looked at it and ran a data scan, “well, it’s a bit early, but I can replace it for you today. Any new pains, anything I should know about?” 

“Well, no, not really. I’m the same as last time!” Skywarp sat quietly as Ratchet ran a full body scan, swinging his legs off the edge of the berth. “Do you… do you have any news on Thundercracker?” 

Ratchet nodded lightly. “He hasn’t woken up yet, but his scans seem to be showing his systems running through a typical reboot process and his neural scans are showing more activity. It shouldn’t be long before he wakes up again. All his vitals are stable, it’s just a matter of his processor getting a hold of itself.”

Skywarp’s wings popped straight up, mimicking the wide grin on his face. “That’s great! You know, I’ve been feeling him sort of start to move in the bond, so I thought that could be the case. That’s great news!” 

Ratchet began cleaning up Skywarp’s covered wounds, applying fresh nanites with a caring touch. “Anything from Starscream lately?” 

Skywarp pouted and crossed his arms in response. “No, nothing solid. I mean, I know he’s awake and he’s been really emotional lately, but I have no clue why! And I mean like, more emotional than just not being with me and Cracker! He’s going totally haywire!” 

“Really? Maybe the Decepticons back at your base are giving him a hard time?”

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think he’s even at base! If he was, I’d be able to tell. I can always tell when he’s with Megatron.” 

Skyfire struggled to not tense up at the mention of Megatron, but before he could reign in his expression, Ratchet raised his eyebrow at Skywarp and asked “How so?” 

Warp looked at the ground, deep in thought, trying to find the right way to explain. “He gets scared. His side of the bond kinda jolts and it’s kinda cold and shaky when he sees him. It’s not fun. But it’s for the best, because then Thundy and I know that we need to go looking for him. I mean, it’s Lord Megatron, but Star’s still trine. He’s our trine leader. We’re not gonna leave him alone.” 

Skyfire felt his tanks turn. He wanted to say something. He really did. He just didn’t know how to start. His voice box didn’t give him a chance to think it over. 

“Skywarp.”

Warp looked up at him and smiled. “Oh, hey, Fiery! It’s been a while! How you holdin’ up?” 

Skyfire cycled his vents deeply. It was now or never. He focused just on Skywarp, ignoring the two other mechs in the room at the moment. “Skywarp, I need to tell you something.”

“What?” Skywarp’s wings drooped behind him, worried, “What is it?” 

“...I know where Starscream is. I rescued him from the battle. I hid him so that no one would find him.”

Skywarp’s face dropped fully, his wings going completely limp. As Warp regained his thoughts, Skyfire worked up the nerve to spare a glance at the others. Wheeljack had the decency to look shocked but Ratchet was frowning and glaring at the ground. 

Skywarp spoke up again, looking at Ratchet with a splitting smile. “You owe me 50 shanix.” 

Wheeljack and Skyfire scoffed in surprise in sync as Ratchet grumbled and transferred them over. Skywarp turned back to Skyfire. “I knew it! I knew you would take care of him! I bet Ratchet that you would!” 

Ratchet grumbled further, muttering out “I didn’t think a mech your size could sneak Starscream off the battlefield.” 

Everyone looked at Wheeljack, waiting for his reaction. After a contemplative moment, he finally spoke too. “Okay, I’m probably not the best to go and help you with him, so I won’t offer, but what I _can_ do is make a comm system that Red can’t detect. We can all be connected to it, so if Star is ever in trouble and needs us, he can call us whenever.” 

Skyfire put a hand over his spark. “You would really do that?”

Wheeljack just laughed. “Of course I would! I’ve got your back, Sky!” 

“Next time you go visit him, take me,” Ratchet was already packing a field med kit. “You’re a bright mech but you’re no medic. I have no doubt you’ve been holding Star up, but he’s going to need proper medical attention.”

Skywarp pulled a little toy out of his subspace. It was a blue ball with green patches and big cute eyes sewn into it. “This is a little Earth toy! I made it for Star! He sleeps with it every night! Take it to him, it’ll make him feel better!” 

Skyfire giggled at the little thing. He cradled it in his hands and brought it up to his face. “You can sew, Skywarp?” 

Skywarp puffed up proudly. “I’m very adaptable!” 

“Thank you all so much,” Skyfire felt a few tears run down his cheeks, “really, I can’t thank you all enough.” 

Ratchet put a hand on Skyfire’s arm, a gentle, honest smile on his face. “You’re our friend, Skyfire. We’re not going to let you fight alone.”

Wheeljack shouted, “Ah ha! I know what we can do!” 

“What? What?” Warp jumped in his chair.

“When Thundercracker wakes up, we can sneak you two out of here to go be with Star. We can all be connected by my comms and we can check up on you until you’re all healthy enough to go back to the Decepticons!” 

Skywarp snickered mischievously. “I never thought Autobots would be helping me escape… well, Autobots!” 

Ratchet tapped him on the helm with a wrench, although the action was almost too soft to be called a tap. “You should be thankful!”

“You mean I should be _tank_ ful?” Skywarp smiled expectantly, “You know? Because we turn into vehicles an-”

“Get out of my medbay,” Ratchet said, not able to keep the audible laugh out of his tone. 

“Alright, so we all meet here next time Skywarp comes in?”

“Sounds like a plan! Just don’t blow up your face next time.”

“Shut up, Skyfire, I got this!” 

“Alright, alright, mechs, you’re both beautiful! Now please take your petty little feud out of my medbay!” Ratchet shoved them out the door with a smile as he slammed it in their faces. 

“Well,” Wheeljack pointed down the hall, “I should get back to my lab. See you round, Fire!” 

“See you soon, Wheeljack!” Skyfire turned to walk back to his hab, so happy that he couldn’t bother to stop his wings from perking up so high that the tips touched the ceiling. He knocked out a light or two on his walk back, but he didn’t really notice. Things were finally looking up! He had friends and he had Star and he was going to make sure Star was safe.

He would make sure of it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank my wonderful beta readers, OverlordRaxx and MarissaBlackwing! I'm still taking requests for Snippets, so feel free to share your ideas or prompts! Thank you all for reading, leaving kudos, and commenting, everything is appreciated! Love you all, see you next chapter!


	9. Awakening

Badum. Badum. Badum. Badum. 

Like a human heartbeat, the trine bond pulsed. It started sparingly, like an engine trying its hardest to start up but failing. As the days went by, it happened more often, more steady, more  _ alive _ . The weight tugging on Starscream and Skywarp’s sparks slowly began to lift, an anchor on their emotions being raised by the endless toil of the third party. Around it, a light cloud of activity formed, like lightning bugs lifting from their freshly disturbed grass, circling the ball that was Thundercracker’s spark, and they all sang. The flurry shifted into the bridges connecting their life forces, a tickle to the sides of their conscience. The buzz passed like a comet through them and they sent Thundercracker back a bombardment of asteroids of joy. Thunder’s spark shook, building up charge with each rock to hit him, and then, with the power of a solar flare, his spark beamed back to life, with all the activity of the greatest coral reef. 

Starscream and Skywarp both sat up in tandem, barriers of the physical world be damned. Their bond told them all they needed to know. Thundercracker was awake. 

* * *

[Clinical Stasis: Disengaged] 

[Damage Report:

  * External Damage: Minimal, repair nanites active.
  * Internal Damage: Minimal, optical pathways corrupt. Rebooting…]



Thundercracker flinched as his optics pinched in reboot. They cycled back on in a minute, showing the ceiling shine with its cold medbay lights. He couldn’t turn his helm much, but he could see the screens displaying his sparkbeat and neural activity. He prodded at the bond curiously, only to be instantly assaulted by the joy of his trinemates. He smiled to himself, holding his hands over his spark in relief.

“Well, look who’s awake!” 

Thundercracker turned his optics towards the noise and could only just make out a red and white paint job from his peripheral. The mech quickly noticed that he couldn’t be seen and walked into Thunder’s field of view.  

“I’m Ratchet. I’m your medic here on the Ark. Can you hear me alright?” 

Thundercracker flipped some pathways to his voice box on, hoping it still worked. Thankfully, his own voice, albeit a bit scratchy, whined out a small “Yeah.” 

Ratchet smiled wide. “Oh, good. I had to do some intensive work on your audials and optics, same as for Skywarp. Sensitive systems tend to feedback when a bond is strained and I suppose trine bonds only make the static stronger. Starscream fared the best off, but that’s because he wasn’t personally injured, just suffered the knockback from you two.” 

“S-starscream? He’s not here, do you know that? I can feel Skywarp nearby but Starscream is-” 

“Yes, yes, I know,” Ratchet placed a comforting hand on Thundercracker’s shoulder, “Skywarp was brought back to the Ark with you, but Skyfire took Starscream off base and has him well-hidden and safe. I’ve given him medical attention already. I didn’t expect the SIC of the Decepticons to be so fussy.” 

Thundercracker couldn’t help a mild chuckle, no matter how it rattled some loose parts in his chest. “H-Hook hates him. He never sits still when he’s being patched up, his wings are super sensitive and it makes him squirm and whine a lot.” 

“Skyfire seems to know that very well,” Ratchet said cheekily, a smirk painted across his face. 

“Oh, yeah, he would  _ definitely _ know. He used to massage Star’s wings back when they were at the Science Academy. He pinched Star’s wings twice before he was scared into being even gentler.” 

“Poor mech,” Ratchet shook his head. 

“No, don’t feel bad! I think Fire’s into it. Why else would he date Star?” 

A sharp laugh from the other side of the room made the seeker and medic alike jump hard. 

“So it’s true, huh? Skyfire and Star are finally back together? Primus, that’s a relief. Think ol’ Screamer’ll calm down some now?” Jazz grinned wide, smugness radiating off his frame.

“For your information, we were speaking in the past tense,” Ratchet snapped, which Thundercracker, and obviously Jazz, could see was done only in panic. 

“Really? Well, you said that you worked on him, Ratch! Last time I checked, we only had two seekers in the medbay right now, not three.”

Ratchet swore under his breath before Jazz raised his hands non-threateningly. 

“Woah, woah, my mech, I’m not looking for trouble! In fact, just the opposite! I wanna help you.” 

Thundercracker couldn’t help the flare of anger he felt at being teased by the Autobot spy, who had so many times come close to offlining him and his trinemates. “And why would you do that?!” 

Jazz smiled slowly. If you were anybody else, you’d think it was kind, benevolent. But if you knew how to read mechs with visors, like Thundercracker did - Skywarp had worn one for a long time and it had just gotten broken on their arrival to Earth - you could tell that it was smarmy, cunning and clever, that his eyes behind the mask were dripping with devilish intent.

“Well, my mech, you see, it’s a little something like this. I-” Jazz brought a slow hand to his chest, “-would very much like to see this war end. I’m tired of all the fighting and whatnot. And this is the best chance I’ve had in a long time to do it.”

Jazz turned to Ratchet, who seemed wary of him. Thundercracker rolled his eyes. Did Ratchet not know who he was dealing with? Just because Jazz was an Autobot doesn’t mean he was at all safe. 

“Ratchet, you know Prime. Isn’t this exactly the type of thing he’d eat up? It’s Romeo and Juliet! Two star crossed lovers across factions trying to reunite, he’d fall for it hook, line, and sinker! Add in the way Buckethead treats Star, and you  _ know _ Optimus would… kill to help them.”

Jazz turned that sickening smirk to Thundercracker once more, gently pointing at his chest. “And  _ you _ . As much as Optimus would love to take matters into his own hands, he’s more useful if he garners sympathy. If, let’s say, one of Star’s own trinemates was so appalled by Megs’ behavior that he took matters into his own hands, then-”

“I’ll do it.”

Jazz’s smug aura dropped instantly and he couldn’t pick it back up fast enough. “Pardon?” 

“You know, I think it’s funny that you Autobots think we’re not all in this together.” 

“What do you mean?” Jazz’s hands were back down at his sides, not encroaching on a mostly immobile Thundercracker’s form. 

“You think Star does everything on his own because he’s the loudest out of us all. You think he would pull the stunts he does if he thought we didn’t have his back?” 

A smile, genuine this time, more genuine than Ratchet had ever seen based on his shocked face, slowly pricked at Jazz’s features. “Care to elaborate?”

Thundercracker huffed, twitching his wings in fake confidence as much as he could while lying on them. “Star isn’t the only one who wants Megatron out of the picture. He hurts our trine leader. Skywarp and I could never be loyal to scum like that.” 

Jazz leaned in closer, not out of intimidation, but out of a strong joy permeating through his EM field. “So you two are in on it?” 

“Duh. We’ve got Star’s back no matter what. Now, would you like to tell me your stupid Autobot plans first, or would you like to hear what we’ve come up with?”

Jazz’s joy spiked as he clenched his fists in anticipation. With one swift movement, he swiped off his visor, revealing crazed red optics that perfectly matched his Autobot badge. 

“Tell me  _ everything _ .” 

* * *

The Seeker Command Trine was gone. Thundercracker and Skywarp had been shot down in battle, as everyone had seen. Since then, Megatron ordered a ship wide search for the last unaccounted-for member. Megatron had already talked to the Prime and seen his seekers in the Autobot’s medbay. There was a noticeable lack of a loud, screeching red-winged jet. 

Thundercracker and Skywarp had gotten new comms. The comms were connected to Ratchet, the Autobot medic, Wheeljack, the Autobot engineer, Jazz, the third in command, and, of course, Skyfire, Starscream’s… old friend? Ex-boyfriend? Now-boyfriend, maybe? Soundwave wasn’t sure how to consider their relationship. Whatever it was, it was strong enough for Skyfire to convince the others that they should help a mech that they had fought for thousands of years. 

Soundwave knew exactly where all of them were, including Starscream. He just hadn’t told Megatron. Megatron didn’t need to know. 

Starscream was one of the only mechs who seemed to care about Soundwave’s tendencies. He was surprisingly polite, and ever since their talk, he’d only gotten nicer and nicer. Skyfire’s influence, perhaps, but regardless of the cause, the effect was all the same. 

“An end to the war would be nice,” Soundwave thought to himself in the empty bridge of the Nemesis. 

He added himself to the commline the others shared and sent a simple message. “I want to help too. I want the war to end.” 

It was a foreign feeling, typing the phrase. “I want the war to end.” Soundwave realized, in the back of his mind, that it felt comfortable to say both ways. 

Soundwave: Wants war to end.  _ I _ want the war to end. 

It felt right no matter which way he said it. 

With that, his spark settled into place. He knew where he stood. He knew what to do. He clicked send on the message. 

The war had to end. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've got some new additions to the fray! This problem is getting to be a lot bigger than just Skyfire and Starscream. Hmm, I wonder what that could mean?
> 
> Also, I headcanon Jazz with red optics under his visor! I think it's cute and interesting! He's not meant to be an undercover Decepticon or anything.


End file.
